TV: First official look at Matt Ryan as ‘Constantine’

While the net has been overrun with ‘leaked’ pictures from the set of NBC’s forthcoming Constantine, the network has now released their first official look at the lead , based on the DC/Vertigo character of the same name.

Welsh actor Matt Ryan very much conjures up the spectre of the character, with the trenchcoat, shirt and red skinny tie all identifiable with the legendary comics figure. Although he is shrouded in a cloud of smoke, he isn’t holding his trademark cigarette, a reported bone of contention between producer David S. Goyer and the network. If Keanu can smoke as the character, then surely NBC can acknowledge that people in the real world occasionally consume 30 or so Silk Cut cigarettes a day?

John Constantine was first introduced in 1985 in the pages of Swamp Thing, and subsequently went on to star in his own series Hellblazer from 1988 to 2013. The character then transitioned into DC’s New 52 with the book Constantine, which continues to run. According to NBC, the series will follow Ryan as the “enigmatic and irreverent Liverpool con-man-turned-occult-detective John Constantine, who is reluctantly thrust into the role of defending our world against dark forces from beyond.”